Ricardo Cases, a photographer from Alicante, presents a new photobook this Saturday at noon in Las Cigarreras. The edition is limited to 500 copies, published in partnership with Dalpine and Torch Press from Japan.
Until is a 200-page volume born from a project conceived before the pandemic. It reads like a diary that gathered 1,655 images shot daily over a six‑month period along the same 15‑kilometer route that connected a person’s home and a school. The journey traced daily life, capturing the rhythm of a home and the path that connects it to the world beyond.
Cases uses the project to explore the boundaries of photography and the language it uses. He observes that, regardless of how many frames are captured, there will always be aspects of reality that elude capture and interpretation.
The artistic focus in Cases’s recent work centers on how landscapes reflect human activity and how behavior shapes the places people inhabit. He investigates how a location’s identity is formed by both visible scenes and the subtler currents of life that pass through it, searching for photographic strategies that distill a place while also revealing its complexity.
The project was presented as an exhibition in Valencia, and the publication details reveal how this series translates into a book that broadens the public’s access to the imagery and ideas underpinning the work. The photobook format lets the imagery breathe and invites readers to follow a gradual, contemplative pace through the route that frames the work.
Cases’s practice continually engages with the Levantine landscape, a region known for its bright appearances that often conceal darker undercurrents. His work looks for the tension between visible vibrancy and the subtle, sometimes overlooked, aspects of daily life that shape a place over time. The photographer’s approach places emphasis on how small, repeated observations can accumulate into a powerful narrative about place, memory, and perception.
In this body of work, the photographer expands beyond individual images to consider how a sequence, a rhythm, and a cadence form a larger portrait of a community. The book Until invites readers to move through the scenes with a patient eye, letting color, texture, and light guide interpretation rather than forcing a single message. The result is a meditation on how photography as a practice can both reveal and withhold truth, prompting viewers to reflect on what is seen and what remains unsaid.
Critics have noted that the Levant region, with its seemingly vibrant palette, harbors layers of meaning that become more apparent when examined over time. Cases’s photographs illuminate those layers, offering a nuanced look at how environments and people shape each other. The work stands as a record of place that is deeply aware of history, geography, and the social textures that define everyday life. It is a reminder that a landscape is never just scenery; it is a living archive of human presence and change.
As a whole, the project challenges viewers to consider photography not merely as a collection of images, but as a dynamic process of looking, selecting, and interpreting. The photobook format intensifies this process by inviting sustained engagement and personal pacing, turning a routine journey into a portal for reflection on place, time, and memory. In this sense, Until becomes both a map and a mirror—an invitation to look closely, question what is visible, and acknowledge what cannot be fully captured.
Within the broader scope of Cases’s work, the publication adds another dimension to a long-standing inquiry into how landscapes influence and are influenced by the people who inhabit them. The series continues to develop the idea that photography can dialogue with place to reveal its true texture, even as it acknowledges the constraints and imperfections inherent in any attempt to document reality. This balance between depiction and restraint is what gives the book its lasting resonance and makes it a meaningful addition to contemporary photographic discourse. (Citation: Local cultural institutions and press materials about the Alicante-based photographer.)